Automakers in China shipped 18.7 percent more passenger cars to dealers in August from a year ago, official data showed, lagging a nearly 60 percent annual jump in retail car sales, reflecting an apparent drawdown in dealers' showroom inventories.
A total of 1.02 million sedans, sport utility vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles were shipped to dealers in August, compared with 858,300 units a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Thursday.
That marks an improvement from July when wholesale car sales in the country rose by a mere 13.6 percent, their slowest gain in 15 months.
"There was a rebound in August, but a 60 percent year-on-year jump released by CATRC seems a bit too high," said Marvin Zhu, a Shanghai-based senior analyst with J.D. Power.
Zhu was referring to government-affiliated China Automotive Technology & Research Center (CATRC), which started releasing monthly auto sales data in April.
The discrepancy reflects an upturn in market demand in the world's largest auto market after Beijing's subsidies for fuel-saving cars took effect in late July, analysts say.
It also showed that automakers had slowed shipment of their stock to dealers, which have seen their inventory levels piling up since May, when the market started to lose some of its steam.
"Automakers and dealers are partners -- they help out each other in good times and bad," said Meng Yi, a Shanghai-based salesman for General Motors' GM.UL Chevrolet brand.
"Sometimes, dealers would take more than they could actually sell to help automakers achieve their sales target. In return, they would get the shipment earlier than others when the market is extremely good and people had to wait for weeks or months to get their cars," he added.
